Architecture
Architecture students at California College of the Arts are challenged to be creative and visionary. Across four academic programs and four research and teaching labs, they design with aesthetic, social, and environmental issues in mind, producing work that links image to identity, form to performance, and order to equity.
Overview
Embrace innovative thinking and making
Design better futures
We believe that architecture and interior design are critical cultural practices that can and should serve the common good. Architecture at CCA is an arena for the free and open exchange of ideas about the future—of our buildings, cities, and planet—and a laboratory where these ideas are tested through speculative architectural research. Our students challenge conventional ideas at every turn in an innovative culture of making that weds discipline-specific skills and knowledge to emerging technical and conceptual methods.
With each passing semester, you’ll increasingly see yourself as a designer actively engaged in the most important issues of the day, becoming ever more confident as your knowledge base grows, your skills sharpen, and your ability to identify, develop, and communicate your ideas matures. Guided by a faculty with practice-based expertise—ranging from experimental history and leading-edge digital fabrication to fresh urban form-making, novel representational methods, and down-and-dirty design/build—you’ll transform theory into action as you produce new disciplinary knowledge and discover career opportunities that value design speculation and versatile leadership.
The city is your urban laboratory
Central to your experience at CCA is our San Francisco location: a place where the leading edge of digital culture meets an enduring legacy of social and environmental action. Here, new ideas about how we inhabit this planet are continually being tested. You’ll study in a world-class, top art and design college that values interdisciplinary exchange and open dialogue.
Creating opportunities for excellence
We are stewarding our discipline toward a more sustainable and inclusive future for everyone. With the generous support of the Gensler family and the award-winning Gensler firm, and in honor of the late former board chair, we’ve established the M. Arthur Gensler Jr. Center for Design Excellence, a dedicated academic and professional initiative that advocates for diversity and social justice within the field, supports forward-looking design research and practices, and connects students with leading professionals in the field. Through scholarships, mentorships, and tailored curricular engagements, you’ll connect with industry leaders, discover-cutting edge faculty research, and find inspiring opportunities to construct your career in shaping the future of the built environment.
The M. Arthur Gensler Jr. Center for Design Excellence was created through the generosity of the Gensler Family and the Gensler firm to celebrate the life and legacy of visionary architect, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Art Gensler.
Community
Fundamentally collaborative
Meet the dean of Architecture
Dean Keith Krumwiede is an award-winning educator and the author of Atlas of Another America: An Architectural Fiction, a satirical assessment of the American Dream. Named “Book of the Year” by critics Alexandra Lange and Mark Lamster, Atlas of Another America reflects Krumwiede’s multifaceted and humorous approach to the culture of architecture and its often-complicit relationship to power and privilege. His work has been exhibited globally at renowned architecture biennials, universities, and galleries. A thought-leading researcher, Krumwiede’s scholarly articles have appeared in The Architect’s Newspaper, Praxis, Domus, and elsewhere. Prior to joining CCA in fall 2018, he was an Arnold W. Brunner/Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize Fellow in Architecture.
High-profile architecture and design educators
Our award-winning faculty drive the success of our discipline. As teachers, researchers, practitioners, and public intellectuals, we’re active in shaping important conversations around architecture and interior design. Our faculty believe that architecture and interior design are critical cultural practices that reflect values, impact lives, shape urban spaces, harness technological innovation for positive change, and envision other futures for an environmentally challenged world.
Robust public programming
Our national and international networks are amplified by our lecture series and symposia. Open to the public, our keynote lectures feature architects, designers, and theorists from the Bay Area and around the world. Recent guests include Wang Shu, Jeanne Gang, Eyal Weizman, Amanda Williams, Tatiana Bilbao, and Neyran Turan.
We also host numerous symposia each semester, inviting faculty and scholars from other architecture schools to join us in wrestling with controversial, provocative, and future-focused topics. Often directly tied to projects our students, faculty, and external partners advance in our architecture research labs, symposia are opportunities to learn from scientists, engineers, and other practitioners whose work intersects many different disciplines. Recent symposia topics include Reckoning: Monuments and Racial History, Domestic Affairs: Housing the Multitude, and Designing Material Innovation.
Explore Architecture @cca_arch_div
Aug. 22, 2024
Onion by Curran Thompson (BARCH 2026) from last Spring’s Studio 4 taught by Mark Donohue and Vivian Schwab!
Read about the project below!
“Onion is a social housing complex in the Portola neighborhood of San Francisco. It holds 20 units, ranging in size from studio apartments to three-bedroom units. A courtyard has been placed in the center of development, which allows the units to be concentrated on the parameters of the site. The open center offers a destination and gathering space for the residents, as well as direct access to the inner street and commons beyond. The units, by occupying the exterior walls of the complex, allow the circulation to reside on the interior wall, facing the courtyard.
Onion, situated on the corner of Woolsey St, utilizes the corner condition by pressing against the street and sidewalks. The outward-facing form takes inspiration from the gabled roofs of the Portola green houses. They stood for more than fifty years on the site, representing the agricultural past of Portola.” - Curran Thompson
#ccarts #californiacollegeofthearts #ccaarchitecture #architecture #interiordesign #studio #sanfrancisco #artschool #imadethat #architectureschool #ccainteriordesign #architecturestudent #architecturestudentblog #Chimeramade #bayarea
Aug. 13, 2024
Highlights from work by Xinyu Wang (INTER 2026) from last Spring’s Materiality & Space 2 taught by Jessy Slim!
Congratulations to Xinyu for receiving the 2024 Interior Design Second Year Materiality and Space Studio Award!
#ccarts #californiacollegeofthearts #ccaarchitecture #architecture #interiordesign #studio #sanfrancisco #artschool #imadethat #architectureschool #ccainteriordesign #architecturestudent #architecturestudentblog #Chimeramade #bayarea
Aug. 9, 2024
Urban Canopy by Bert Kip (BARCH 2026) from last Spring’s Studio 4 taught by Mark Donohue and Vivian Schwab!
Learn more about the project below!
“The Urban Canopy accentuates the role of the commons within a semi enclosed courtyard scheme, the exposed framework of the structure reveals a series of outdoor terraces scattered throughout the vertical circulation while also allowing way for vegetation to become a co inhabitants of the space. The unit arrangements create a visual hierarchy through the pushing and pulling of the masses, creating adjacent spaces for the commons. The central courtyard draws inspiration from the portola greenhouses; serving as a communal garden for residents to engage with nature and one another.” - Bert Kip
#ccarts #californiacollegeofthearts #ccaarchitecture #architecture #interiordesign #studio #sanfrancisco #artschool #imadethat #architectureschool #ccainteriordesign #architecturestudent #architecturestudentblog #Chimeramade #bayarea
Aug. 6, 2024
Some highlights from Gabriela Mierkalne’s (INTER 2026) project from last Spring’s Studio 2 taught by Matt Kendall (@kenkeez)
Congratulations to Gabriela for receiving the 2024 Interior Design Second Year Core Design Studio Award!
Read more about the project below!
“This artist studio space at the Headlands Center for the Arts seamlessly blends Donald Judd’s minimalist and industrial aesthetics with design elements inspired by Sou Fujimoto's House N. Featuring partitions with rectangular cut-outs, the space promotes openness and connectivity, reflecting the airy, layered structure characteristic of House N. The use of white and grey shades enhances the interplay of light and shadow, mimicking the layering seen between the shells of Fujimoto’s design. The thoughtful layout prioritizes display flexibility and provides multiple access points to different parts of the studio. This architectural approach not only aligns with Judd's ethos but also creates a functional and inspiring environment for artistic creation.” - Gabriela Mierkalne
#ccarts #californiacollegeofthearts #ccaarchitecture #architecture #interiordesign #studio #sanfrancisco #artschool #imadethat #architectureschool #ccainteriordesign #architecturestudent #architecturestudentblog #Chimeramade #bayarea
Students and faculty stories
Architecture students explore how California's high-speed rail can connect communities
Undergraduate
Reimagine our cities and environments
Create innovative work across disciplines
The five-year Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) program is NAAB-accredited and STEM-designated. With a focus on critical thinking and creative making, students learn how to be agents of change, leveraging their skills toward environmental, social, and political impact. Design studios emphasize conceptual rigor, engaged research, and material and formal experimentation, setting students up for success across a range of project scales.
Our BFA in Interior Design is a four-year, STEM-designated*, accredited program with a focus on sustainable material practices and spatial innovation. Students learn to design for various human environments, including the home, workplace, and public sphere. Internships with prominent Bay Area architecture and interior design firms give students a first-hand look at the daily processes they’ll encounter throughout their careers.
*As of summer 2025, F-1 international students who earn a STEM-designated CCA BFA in Interior Design degree may apply for a 24-month OPT extension beyond the initial year of OPT, allowing them to work in the U.S. for up to three years after degree completion. OPT applications and extensions require US DHS/USCIS approval.
Graduate
Architecture matters
Connect architectural innovation with social impact
Our Master of Architecture (MArch) program champions innovation and experimentation in architectural design, preparing students to lead conversations and develop solutions around some of the world’s most pressing issues. NAAB-accredited and STEM-designated, the MArch program guides students through three years of advanced study, leveraging design, research, and material innovation to merge conceptual, historical, and physical contexts.
Our second STEM-designated program, the Master of Advanced Architectural Design (MAAD), is for early-to-mid-career professionals interested in collaborative and experimental design practices. Over the course of one intensive year, students focus on an independent research or design project through mentored study and a range of elective offerings in one of three areas associated with our research labs: Digital Craft, History Theory Experiments, or Urban Works.
Labs & Research
Engage with urgent issues
Instigate change
We believe architecture can imagine and create alternative futures, and we translate this belief into direct action. Our four research labs, which are formulated around faculty interests and expertise, present students with myriad project opportunities, such as developing solutions to regional issues brought on by climate change for the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge.
From gritty experiments with alternative materials to groundbreaking thinking about urban issues, these projects are often conceived and realized in collaboration with external partners. Recent collaborators include Autodesk, the City of San Francisco, Kreysler & Associates, and the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge.
Digital Craft Lab
The Digital Craft Lab features experimental making through emerging technologies. Advanced computation, robotics, responsive environments, and rapid prototyping are motivations to reconsider how architecture is produced.
Urban Works Agency
The Urban Works Agency responds to the politics of the contemporary city. Equity, ecological vitality, and economic resilience are reimagined through urban and territory scaled analysis, narratives, and arguments.
Architectural Ecologies Lab
The Architectural Ecologies Lab serves as a platform for collaborative research between designers, scientists, and manufacturers. This interdisciplinary setting provides the tools to address ecological challenges like sea level rise, habitat restoration, and climate change.
History Theory Experiments
History Theory Experiments works to preserve and present the immaterial aspects of architectural heritage through the reconstruction of environments, immersive augmented reality, and cutting-edge conservation techniques.
Advanced electives
Vertical electives are courses that integrate graduate and undergraduate architecture students as they learn the process of taking conceptual ideation to practical implementation; the objective of vertical electives is to deepen students’ understanding of and ability to create what’s possible when theory, practice, and experimentation converge. While electives vary from year to year, we’re particularly excited about these two:
- Mechanized Natures – Explore architectural attitudes toward machines and nature through drawing projects that engage processes of automation and ecological thinking.
- Urban Imaginaries – Reflect on "the urban imaginary" by examining how cities are defined through material forces, social acts, political directives, and market exchanges, as well as historically informed ideas about what defines "the city."
Advanced and integrated studios
Our advanced studios, which undergraduates can take during their final two years, are either embedded within our research labs or framed around collaborations with external partners. Studios, like the ones featured below, focus on how architectural design can problem-solve for challenging environments and increasingly dense cities.
Buoyant Ecologies
In contrast to anthropocentric technologies of “resilience” motivated primarily by self-preservation, this evolving advanced studio series explores alternative strategies for human adaptation to ecological change that both depend on and support the health and diversity of nonhuman terrestrial and marine species.
Common Ground: Re-Making the Ground Floor
This advanced urban studio explores the role of social infrastructure in building a more just, inclusive, and thriving city. Students reimagine the ground floor of the city as a shared infrastructure in the service of the public good by imagining new configurations of our collective urban ground.
Travel studios
We encourage every undergraduate and graduate student to study abroad at least once. You’ll broaden your cultural influences, explore new environments, and meet other creative practitioners. Our most recent travel studios focused on the following themes:
- China | Picking Up Threads: Stitchlink 2020 – Explore the burgeoning southeastern region of China studying the work of several contemporary Chinese architects
- Mexico | Material Cultures in Mexico City & Oaxaca – The studio weaves together cultural research, material exploration, and design innovation to explore resonance between traditional craft practices and contemporary techniques of architectural design and production.
We’re here to answer your questions
We’re happy to share more information about our alumni, faculty, and the ambitious projects we’re pursuing in our four research labs.
Explore other disciplines at CCA
Get more details about your program of interest